Two bad days, the origin of Red Floof
by Jesters Folly
Summary: This is the origin story of my DCU online character Red Floof
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1, A bad day

The heat from the coffee cup warmed the side of her face as she tried, in vain, to push her thick, curly red hair away from her eyes. The coffee sloshed in the cup as her finger caught in a knot and a small growl rose in her through as she cursed, not for the first time, her uncontrollable mane of hair and the weak hair band that had snapped five minutes earlier as she was ordering the hot drink. As the band had snapped and her hair bloomed out she was met with the cat calls of 'Floof' and 'fire head' that had followed her through her life and she had left the coffee shop in a hurry, her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment, the childish nature of the insults grating at her. She weaved in and out, seemingly unseen by the of the crowds of people. 'Typical' she though 'I'm either invisible or the fire headed floof'.

Her arm jolted as someone bumped in to her, she started to feel a wet warm patch spread just above her waist when a voice shouted out.

"Oi! You stupid woman look where you're going."

Looking around she saw the man who had just bumped into her, he opened his mouth to say something else and then stopped and put his hand on his jacket.

"What the hell, is this coffee. You stupid bitch, you got coffee on me. Come here, you're paying for the cleaning."

The man stepped forward but the flow of people went against him and she lost sight of him. Before he had the chance to get past the crowd she ran down the street.

The receptionist, who was bent over picking something up from behind the counter, looked up as she entered the building.

"Wow Kat, what happened to you. What's with that mane, you look like little lion who just lost a fight."

Katheryn resisted the urge to slap the receptionist round the face, not only had she joked about her mass of hair but she'd shortened her name and she hated that. Forcing a smile, she said.

"There's so many people out there, it seems like you can't get anywhere without some idiot bumping into you."

"Well it's the evacuation. Wait what are doing back here anyway?"

"Well I do work here, I only went out for lunch." Katheryn held the paper bag and half empty coffee cup up to emphasis her point.

"Yes." The receptionist said with a sigh. "But we've all been sent home. Both S.T.A.R. labs and Lex corp. have sent out an alert."

"Why, what's happened?"

"No idea." The receptionist replied picking up her hand bag. "But we get to knock off early so get out so I can lock up."

Katheryn looked at the throngs of people heading home from their offices and shops, if she had known about the evacuation she could have saved herself the embarrassment at the coffee shop, as well as the run in with the man in the crowd. She took a sip of the coffee and found that, not only was there less than half a cup but now it was cold. With a sigh she headed down the office steps and into the busy street. Ten minutes later the sky darkened, and Katheryn looked up, cursing the dark clouds she expected to see and rain she knew they'd bring. Instead of clouds she saw something hanging in the sky and the crowd's around her began to stop as everyone else noticed the strange object. Of course, it wasn't the first space ship she had seen, if you made it through two months in Gotham without seeing something strange in the it was considered a quiet time but it still fascinating. Some of the crowd started to move, some running from a possible danger whilst others just carried on their journey, unimpressed or jaded by the regular occurrence of strange objects in the sky but Katheryn stayed to watch. At first nothing happened then a small hatch opened and the object began to move, dropping small objects as it went. The remaining crowd, including Katheryn ran but something hit the ground in front of her and she stopped not wanting to knock whatever it was in case it exploded. Bending down she saw that the object was a small, sliver canister with a green flashing light on it. The light turned red and the canister hissed, Katheryn jumped back but nothing happened. Slightly disappointed Katheryn continued back to her flat.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2, A Night out

Katheryn lay in bed, the room filled with the dark of night. She woken up ten minutes ago, her muscles aching, and she hadn't managed to get back to sleep. Giving up on the idea of getting any rest she got out of bed and wrapped a dressing gown around herself, it's very touch made her itch and she ended up dropping it on the floor. After making a drink she took to her computer to see if she could find anything about the spaceship or the strange canisters it had dropped. There wasn't much to find, just a few photos of the ship and the fallen canisters. Disappointed, she went onto her Facebook to try and take her mid of the increasing itch that seemed to be spreading all over her body. She found that her feed was filled with the usual distractions; pictures of baby's, animal videos and memes. The she saw it, someone must have taken her picture in the coffee shop and it had found its way onto her feed. The picture had been tagged with the line ' _Explosion in a cotton candy factory'_ and, against her better judgment she looked at the comments:

 _What a fire head_

 _Look at that mane_

 _That's more fluff than a bag of cotton wool_

 _That's beyond fluff, that's FLOOF_

 _Red Floof LoL_

Katheryn knew the comments weren't that bad and she'd heard most of them before, but it was the cheek of the people who thought it was ok to put that sort of thing online, angry she pulled on some clothes and headed out into the dark night. Unsure of where to go, Katheryn found her self wondering the dark Gotham streets, her entire body itched, her muscled ached and her back now felt as if it was about to rip open. Stopping outside a night club she bent down and stretched, noticing something glint in the darkness she went to get a closer look. The nightclub doors flew open and a smartly dressed man came tumbling out, picking himself up he started back towards the club door when he saw Katheryn a drunken grin crossed his face.

"Holy hell look at that mop. A fuzz top like that would be worthy of..."

He was cut off as Katheryn bunched up her fist and slammed it into the man's nose, there was a sickening crunch and the man went down. A shout went up from the club door way and Katheryn turned to see a group of men, dressed the same as the one she had just punched, struggling to get past the bouncer. Grabbing the cylinder, she had seen, Katheryn ran down the street towards her flat, her only regret was that she had punched the man before she had found out just what her hair was worthy of.

After hiding the cylinder, Katheryn climbed back into her bed, strangely she had found that the run had seemed to reduce the ache in her muscles and the rubbing of her clothes had helped with the itch, she lay down, closed her eyes and welcomed the darkness of sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3, Transformation

Katheryn sat up with a start and listened, something had woken her up, but she wasn't sure what. There was a strange, mechanical whirring coming from the street below. Looking out of the window Katheryn saw what looked like a domed, metallic brain supported by four crablike legs pacing up and down the street. As she backed away from the window Katheryn caught sight of her reflection, an orange and black fuzz covered her face. Bringing her hand up she noticed it was covered with orange fur, striped with black. Katheryn ran to the bathroom and stared into the mirror, her body was covered with the tiger like fir and her eyes had taken on a green hue. Checking over her body she also found that her muscles seemed better defined. A spasm of pain shot through her back, dropping her to her knees and something seemed to move under her skin, crawling on all fours she made her way to her sofa and tuned on the t.v., the presenter was filming a robot like the one she had seen outside her apartment.

" _It is thought that these drones are the work of Brainiac, although it is certain what they are after they do seem to be searching for something and, there a few reports that they have been seen abducting people."_

A voice cut in from the T.V. studio. " _is it known if these drones have anything to do with the strange ship that seen dropping canisters around the world yesterday?"_

" _There have been no confirmed connections between the Brainiac drones and the canisters that were dropped although the timing of the two incidents is suspiciously close. We have been trying to get any information on yesterday's incident but all we are getting are the odd rumours that some people who have been in contact with one of the canisters have started to develop meta-human abilities. The rumours say people have developed anything from psychic abilities to physical transformations."_

The picture on the T.V. suddenly turned back to the news station.

" _We are sorry to interrupt your report, but we have just been handed a statement from the Justice league of America 'The Justice League have recently cone into information that suggests that Brainiac is planning an al out invasion of earth. The current drone activity appears to be an information gathering expedition and we are doing all that we can to disrupt it. A meeting has been called between the top three League members; Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman and three other prominent members of the local society; Lex Luthor, The Joker and Circe.'_

 _The League are also advising anyone who has been in contact with any of the cylinders that were dropped yesterday to report to their nearest S.T.A.R. Lab's or Lex Corp. Centres where they will be checked over. What exactly they will be checked for has not yet been made clear but, if the League are in talks with the likes of Joker and Circe you can bet your life it's quite serious."_

Katheryn tuned out the rest of the news report 'just great' she thought 'other people are getting powers and all I get is more hair. Her back spasmed again, the pain knocked her off the sofa but this time it didn't stop, and she screamed as things moved under her skin, pushing themselves through. Another spasm hit her, and Katheryn lost conciseness.

The blackness began to fade as Katheryn began to regain conciseness, the T.V. was still happily chattering to itself and the clacking of the Braniaic drone outside rang through the sill air. Katheryn began to pick herself up, the pain was gone but something still wasn't right. She stood up and stretched, her clothes pulled tight against her and, as she relaxed she found her skirt didn't fall right. Katheryn tried adjusting her short skirt figuring that it had twisted when she had slept but it made no difference. Something moved, she only caught a glimpse of it but something definitely moved. Looking around she caught another glimpse of it, something floating about waist high off to her left. Spinning around Katheryn tried to surprise whatever was there, but it seemed to move, waving in the air and turning with her. She spun again and again until she stumbled with dizziness, as she fell forward the thing disappeared behind her and her balance righted itself. The thing reappeared, and this time Katheryn quickly grabbed at it. It felt like a furry snake and Katheryn squeezed to make sure it' couldn't hurt her, she felt pain and her first thought was that she had been bitten. It dawned on her that the pain wasn't in her hand, she couldn't quite place what part of her body the pain was in. She pulled at the snake, trying to bring it around so she could get a better look but there was a strange resistance and something seemed to be tugging at her back, at the base of her spine. Holding the snake in place Katheryn slowly turned around, the tugging in her back got slightly tighter but now she could see what she was holding. It was a long, soft, orange and black furred length of well, Katheryn didn't quit know what it was but the orange fur with black stripes, that was the same as she had sprouted. A thought crossed her mind and she ran her hand along the thing, it's fur went the wrong way and felt uncomfortable and then her hand came to her back, just above her bottom and the source of the strange tugging sensation. The thing was attached to her, it was a tail, she had a tail. Letting go she laughed and flushed with embarrassment, she had been chasing her own tail just like a dog. As she laughed she felt her blouse tighten across her chest, something moved across her back and she realised that there were still some surprises in line for her. Unbuttoning the blouse Katheryn discarded it on the sofa and stretched her shoulders, something else moved pushing her bra strap down and she glanced behind her to see a pair of wings unfurled. Katheryn sighed, surrendering to situation, whatever was in the canister had transformed her into some kind of winged, tiger woman and, to make matters worse it hadn't affected her mass of red 'floofy' hair, there was only one thing left for her to do now, the news report had said that any one affected by the canisters should report to either S.T.A.R. Labs or Lex Corp. So, she went to see if she could find any clothes that would be more comfortable around her new body parts.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4, captured

Ten minutes later, Katheryn bounded down her apartment steps wearing a loose-fitting skirt that was sitting a little bit too low, her new tail poking over the waist band and a sports bra, the back of which was pushed, uncomfortably down by the wings that were now protruding from just below her shoulder blades. She found that the she seemed to have more energy than normal, giving her more speed and balance, although the later may have had something to do with her tail. She stopped as she reached the street and was blinded by the bright sun and, as her eyes adjusted to the outside light she found herself marvelling at the new depth of colour her all too familiar surroundings seemed to have. Maybe, she thought, not all the changes were bad.

"Exobyte carrier detected."

Katheryn turned as the metallic voice rang out behind her, the sun reflected off the Brainiac drones metal skin as it clanked towards her.

"Please remain stationary and prepare to be processed."

With a laugh Katheryn weaved her way down the street only to see a second drone approach from the other end of the street. Both drones fired a beam of light at her, the beams hit and seemed to do nothing.

"Target marked, prepare for transport."

"Screw that." Katheryn said leaping into the air and flapping her new wings, they beat out of time with each other sending her spinning to the ground.

"Dam, I need to practice that." She muttered to herself.

"Exobyte host appears to have mental damage."

"You what." Katheryn screamed, her entire body tensing with anger. The two drones moved towards her and she leapt forward landing on one of the drones, slipping she fell to her knees and as she tried to get a hold of the surface she found small claws push through her fingertips and dig into the dome. A smile crossed her face as she realised she now had a weapon she could use against the machine. Suddenly a beam of light poured down on her from the sky above and everything went black.

The next thing Katheryn was aware of was an immense coldness that penetrated through her skin and seemed to flow with her blood. The came the sounds; A strange humming, the clanking of metal on metal and the sliding of automatic doors. The she heard static followed by a voice.

"Hello, can you hear me? No don't try to answer, this is only a one-way communication so just listen. You are currently in a stasis pod on a Brainiac ship. I have managed to hack the systems and have activated the revive protocol, you should feel yourself warm up and, when you reach the correct temperature the door should open. I'll be back in contact."

Left alone with the sounds of the ship Katheryn lay in the pod, her capture adding to all the events of the previous day her main desire was to get out and smash something.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five, the enemy's ship.

Anger, the small ring came to life as it sensed the one thing it was looking for. The ring tried to turn to orient on the anger but found it's movements inhibited by the piles of junk it found it's self-burred under. Instead of moving it sat where it was, charging its self on the anger. When it was strong enough it would move.

The stasis pod door opened and Katheryn stepped out into small metal room, there were three other pods like hers and she could see people inside them, a small panel on the front of each pad was lit up red and a flat line moved across a small screen and she guessed that the occupants were dead, the loss of life added to her growing rage. The sound of static crackled form somewhere in the room.

"Hello again. I'm sorry but from my readings only one of you made it out alive, it seems Brainiac is only concerned with the retrieval of the Exobytes and not their hosts. I am very sorry about that." The voice paused for a few seconds. "First let me introduce myself, I am the Calculator and am currently working Lex Luthor to save as many of you as possible. The is another team lead by Batman and Oracle but luck you, you got me. I will try to guide you off the ship but I can't see you, only your life signs so you'll have to forgive me if go to fast of slow for you and it's possible that Brainiac or the ship will detect my transition and cut me off, in which case you'll be on your own I'm afraid."

Calculator paused, and lights flashed on the panel of a door on the other side of the room.

"Right, I'm about open the way out but, unfortunately, I'm detecting movement from the other side, it looks like some kind of guard drone. Hopefully you'll be able to take care of it."

Calculator stopped, Katheryn crouched down, as the door slid open she leaped into the air towards the drone. On seeing her the drone opened fire but Katheryn was already in the air and the shots passed harmlessly under her. Landing on the drone Katheryn unsheathed her newly found claws and started ripping at any part of the drone that had an edge, something exploded, throwing her to the ground and when she stood up the drone had been reduced to a smoking pile of twisted metal. Static hissed over the intercom as Calculator came back on line.

"Well, it looks like your still with me, that's a good start. The good news is that the next part of your journey is a straight run, the bad news is that you seem to have attracted the attention of more drones."

Stepping out of the stasis pod room Katheryn found herself in a long passage way. As she started to walk along it, a door at the far end opened up and four guard drones came through followed by something bigger.

The amount of anger suddenly spiked and the ring forced it's self-up through the piles of debris covering it. Once uncovered the ring raced round the ships corridor in search for the source of the rage.

Katheryn had made short work of the four guard drones, finding that the changes to her body had made her stronger and quicker that she had ever been, the bigger drone was proving to be a problem. It was faster and more heavily armed that it's small brothers and she had only just managed to avoid it when it had tried to leap on her and pin her down. Punching, clawing and kicking the large drone Katheryn finally damaged the large robot after it had tried to jump her again, the drone had paused after landing to right itself and Katheryn had hit it's leg with part of one of the smashed drones, the leg joint smashed and it sagged where the leg had supported it. Katheryn jumped against the wall to get above the drone and then threw the drone part at the one she was fighting. The metal pierced the metal shell and the large drone fell in a cloud of smoke.

"Well it looks like you've managed to take care of them. I was beginning to worry. In the next room you should find a vent near the celling, if you can find it you should be able to cut out half the ship without detection."

The room appeared to be a large shaft the top of which was a couple of miles high, Katheryn found that she could make out a vent near the top, improved vision seemed to be another boon of the new body, but she couldn't find a way. Then she remembered her new wings, she also remembered her last attempt of flight. After stalking around the room a few more times Katheryn realised there was no other way, the shaft had no other door and it wouldn't be long before more drones were sent to find her. Slowly she moved her wings, trying to get them to move together. As they beat faster she was lifted off the ground but at a strange angle and every time she tried to adjust her position she moved and crashed into the wall more than once. Eventually she managed to get herself to the right height and pulled herself into the vent, bruised and extremely annoyed.

The ring had found its progress hampered. It couldn't find a direct route to the source of the anger and several drones were now trying to stop sit from traveling through the ship. It had been confronted by a drone when it noticed its target was approaching very fast.

Katheryn was falling, she had crawled over a metal grate which had given way and dropped her down another shaft, panicking she couldn't work out how to use her wings to slow herself down but did manage to twist herself into a landing position. As the ground below rushed to meet her a drone backed below the opening but it didn't seem to be interested in her. The force of the landing drove her feet and one hand through the drone, instantly disabling it. After a moments struggle to get her hand from the metallic carcass she looked up to see a small red ring floating in front of her, the sound of more drones came from farther along the corridor. A beam of light came from the ring running over her.

"Oh, what now." Katheryn mumbled to herself, the light stopped, and the ring spoke.

"Katheryn Rouge, you have embraced the red rage and have been found worthy."

"What?" was all Katheryn had time to say before the ring slid its self onto her finger. A blast of red light shot from her knocking the approaching drones back, without thinking Katheryn unsheathed her claws wishing they were bigger. A red light came from the ring and formed its self into gauntlets covering her hands, clawed tips covered her own claws and extended. With a growl Katheryn through herself at the drones tearing and slicing at them until they all sat in pieces around her.

"Wow, I'm not sure what just happened but your body temperature rocketed there for a minute."

Katheryn looked around for the nearest speaker, the Calculators voice and useless advice beginning to grate on her nerves.

"You're about to pass by a reclamation dump, an area where the ship puts anything extra it brings aboard. You may be able to find something useful there, if you don't mind clearing out a few more drones. After that there's something I need you to check out for me, once you're out of the dump I need you to go left and do some damage to the control panel. Once that's down I should be able to access the cameras and see what's happening."

With a snort, Katheryn ran down the corridor making short work of any drone that got in her way. Four drones were working in the dump and when she entered they all converged on her position, fuelled by raged, powered by her new body and using her new, red claws she reduced the drones to scrap in minuets and set about searching for anything that may be of use to her. Her fur bristled with excitement when she came across a pair of hand blasters, they were cheap model and didn't have much power but they were better than nothing, after all claws were good at close range but it would be better if she could keep any threat at a distance.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6, break out

Katheryn had a dilemma, she didn't like being told what to do and she found Calculator very annoying, however she didn't know where else to go and Calculator did say she would be able to break something if she went left and she defiantly had the urge to smash something. The walls to the passage became translucent and she could see an armada of Braniac drones. There was a console by the door which sparked and crackled as she drove her red, clawed hands into it.

"Ah, good. Give me a minute and I should be able to get the camera on line."

Katheryn paced up and down the corridor, waiting for Calculator to let her know what to do next.

"Right, there you, my, aren't you an angry looking kitty."

Katheryn looked for the camera and launched herself at it, smashing her fist into it.

"Well that wasn't very nice. Now what do we have here. Oh, that's an invasion force. Right well I guess you want a bit of revenge on Brainiac, well here's your chance. You're near the control room, you need to get in there and smash, well everything. It looks like that's in your skill set. Whilst you're doing that I'll see if I can get some help with your extraction."

Katheryn stood staring at the next camera for a few seconds before stalking down the corridor and into the control room.

A wide selection of drones flooded into the room and headed to stop her from smashing the control. Katheryn leaped from drone to drone, using her claws to smash them apart, whilst do this she fired the hand blasters at the control panels. The room was soon filled with destroyed drones and only one console remained. The door opened, and a humanoid drone fired of a barrage of laser blast, caught off guard she managed to avoid all but one of the blasts, pain shot through her shoulder and her anger rose. Diving forward she reached the drone, grabbed it and through it at the remain console which exploded in a ball of fire. An alarm klaxon rang out, hurting Katheryn's ears, driving her to her knees.

"Right, we don't have much time, that ships about to come down. You're near the teleport chamber but you're also about to get hit with a flood of drones, the ship's about through everything at you. We get some help to you, but it'll take a few minutes before we get the teleporters on line. Good luck."

Calculator's voice cut off and Katheryn made her way to the final room, if the ship was sending everything after her then she would just have to smash them all, maybe that would end her anger. The room was full of drones and Katheryn jumped into the middle of them, they soon overwhelmed her, pinning her to ground. A drone aimed its blaster at her head and Katheryn closed her eyes and waited. A laser blasted through the air, but Kathryn wasn't hit.

"get up girl. The fight's still not over." A figure loomed over her, at first glance Katheryn mistook it for a new type of drone but, as it came closer she could see that it was some kind of a power suit, a bald man visible through the clear dome that acted as a face.

"Who the hell do you think you are, you think you can just appear here and tell me what to do. Are you Calculator."

The figure reached out an oversized hand which Katheryn took. The figure spoke as it lifted her from the broke drones.

"I am Lex Luthor and you'd be wise to watch your tone young..." he paused as he noticed the glowing red ring on her finger.

"Ah, you have one of those dam rings." He mumbled. "I'll forgive the attitude, but may I suggest you whip up some armour to go with those claws."

"What, I can do that?" Katheryn asked

"Of course, you can, most of those rings can manifest you desires to some degree. I suggest you do it quickly, we have company."

Katheryn looked up to see drones flooding through the doorway, concentrating the red light flowed over her hands forming into the claws, the it extended over her body forming a red chainmail top that moulded around her wings and a flowing chainmail skirt Lex Luthor grunted and they both turned to face the hoard of Brainiac drones.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7, Revenge

The final battle on board the Brainiac ship lasted around half an hour. Katheryn and Lex Luthor fought an increasing number of drone's, sirens rang out as the ship tried to fix the damage Katheryn's rampage had caused. The teleport pads cracked into life.

"Ok you two get to the pads and I'll get you out of there." Calculator's voice was almost lost the sound of the battle.

Suddenly everything was silent, the alarms cut off and the remain drones shut down, Katheryn and Lex looked at each other in surprise. Then a robotic voice rang out over the intercom.

"Five seconds to self-destruct."

"Go, NOW." Lex cried out and thy both jumped towards different teleport pads.

The hat of the explosion seemed to follow Katheryn through the beam, then she felt like she was falling before hitting the ground face first. A cheer went out and someone shouted, "We have another survivor". The air was filled with music and the smell of people. Picking herself up, Katheryn found herself on a large transporter pad, there were a number of people milling around, most of whom seemed to have been infected by the Exobytes, three high tec. looking post boxes stood at the far end of the room. As she stepped of the pad someone handed her a drink.

"Welcome back to Earth, babe."

"Where, where am I?" Katheryn asked still dazed.

"North Burnley night club. Turns out someone had these transporters added so they could make a quick getaway, Lex Corp commandeered them a few hours ago. How about a welcome home dance ay babe?"

Anger flushed the daze out of her system, after everything she had been through she hadn't returned just to be hit on by some creep. Almost by reflex she grabbed the man by his throat.

"Don't call me babe, scum." Then a thought hit her. "Did you say North Burnley?"

The man nodded the best he could, then whimpered with fear as a cruel smile spread over Kathryn's face, dropping the man she headed towards the door.

"I think Luthor and the others want you to stay hear 'till they contact you." The man stammered

"They can bite me. I have some unfinished business to attend to." Katheryn said forcing her way out of the club and into the street. The red claws sliced through anything that got in her way leaving a trail of destruction and screaming people leading form the club to the coffee shop. Tables and chairs went flying in every direction and people ran as Katheryn's rampage continued. Someone in the coffee shop shut and bared the door and Katheryn stopped for a second, the claws were good, the thought but for this she needed something that would do more damage. The light forming the claws crackled and came together stretching out into a chain, a spiked ball formed at the end and the door collapsed under the force of her new weapon.

"I'll teach you to mock me." She screeched as she entered the building, her new weapon taking out part of the wall.

"Katheryn, is that you. Please stop."

Surprised at hearing her name Katheryn turned to see the receptionist from her offices.

"Look, I'm sorry if anyone said anything to upset you, and it looks like you've had a bad couple of days but look at what you've done."

Katheryn looked around at the coffee shop, most of the customers were hiding under tables or holding onto each other.

"Yea calm down ya' stupid ball of floof." A muscular man with long hair and a biker jacket said. Katheryn aimed one of the hand blasters at him and turned back to the receptionist.

"I'm sorry to tell you that Katheryn's dead, you can call me." She stopped and thought for a second. "You can call me Red Floof." Then, turning to the man she added. "You have a problem with that." The man shook his head.

"This is the GCPD asking the unknown meta human to come out with their hands up." The voice came from outside, and Katheryn swung the chain around her head, gouging large lines out of the wall.

"If you do not come out we will be forced to enter and, and, ha haha Ha HAHAHAHA." The voice gave way to intense laughter. Katheryn swung the chain toward the figure who stepped through the ruined doorway. The figure stopped and ducked as the ball flew overhead.

"Well, Lexxy boy, oh I mean Lex Luthor told me I'd find someone who may interest me here and he certainly wasn't wrong." The figure stood up and bushed his purple suit down and turned to look at Katheryn, his face was chalk white and he had huge red grin painted over his lips.

"They call me Joker and I'm here to offer you the opportunity to cause mischief and chaos." Joker held his hand out to Katheryn then dropped it down when he noticed the red ring. "Ah maybe not." He muttered. A man in clown makeup stuck his head round the door.

"These cops have been taken care of boss but there'll be more on the way."

Joker nodded. "Now my dear, come take a walk with me. We have things to discuss." Putting his arm around Katheryn he leads her out of the building.

"We have a problem. I think you've noticed, it's called Brainiac. We also have an influx of new meta humans, some of whom are goody to shoes and some are born villains. I think your little rampage tells us which you are." Joker spread his hands to emphasise his point and Katheryn took in all the damage around her. Four police men lay dead, their mouths stretched to a large, unnatural smile.

"Lexxy, Cerci and myself have decided to take some of you newbies under our wings, help you understand your new ability's and find you jobs. If you join me I'll make sure your rent's paid, your knack for violence is sated and maybe I should get Harley to have a word with you about that temper."

One of the clowns approached Joker and showed him a tray of jewellery, obviously looted from a nearby store, Joker looked over the tray, picked up a silver neckless lined with bright green emeralds and draped it around Katheryn's neck. The clown took the tray to the others and added the rest of his loot to theirs

"There now, I think it matches your eyes." Katheryn blushed at Jokers words. "Take this as well. I'll use it to let you know when I have work for you."

Katheryn took the radio and watched as Joker and his men skipped down the road. Uncertain what to do next Katheryn made her way back to her flat.


	8. Epilogue

Epilogue.

Katheryn walked down the street, an oversized hoodie emblazoned with scarecrows face hid both her wings and her face and her tail was tucked under a full-length skirt. It had been two weeks since she had been captured by Brainiac and Joker had been true to his word, letting her know where Brainiac drones were so she could join in the fight and by setting her up with a few appointments with Doctor Harleen Quinzal to try to keep her anger under control, a job made much harder by the influence of the red ring that refused to come off.

As she reached the coffee shop she stopped, most of the physical damage had already been repaired and the name had now been changed to 'Red Rage Coffee shop' and a chalk board sat on the pavement proclaiming, 'This is the site the Red Floof and Joker made their alliance'. Uncertain how she felt about the shop using her name to booster it's trade she looked around at the customers but couldn't see any of the people who had been rude to her. A small boy was looking at her from one of the tables and she moved her hood slightly, so he saw her face before she moved on, it wasn't the owners fault their customers were jerks. As she walked down the street she heard the boy try to tell his mother that he's just seen the Red Floof.

Wind blew through the open window and, as she closed it Katheryn notices some strange scratches on the frame, but she couldn't see any signs of any disturbance. Her eyes were drawn to her bed as soon as she entered the bedroom, propped up against her head board was an old-fashioned lamp that seemed to be made of a red metal, where the lenses should be seemed to be filled in and on the metal was a strange symbol. Next to the lantern lay a small grey/blue cat that was wearing a red jump suit that had the same symbol as the lantern, as red glow came from the ring on its tail. As she entered the cat unfurled.

"Hello." It purred "I am Dex-Starr. Master Atrocitus sent me to give you this." The cat rubbed its self on the lantern

"What, what is it and who is Atrocitus?" Katheryn asked only slightly surprised that she was talking to a cat.

"Master Atrocitus is the leader of the red lantern corps. And this is you power battery. This is used to charge your ring if it ever loses power."

"What's a red lantern?"

"You are a red lantern, I am a red lantern. That's one of our rings you wear. Master Atrocitus was going to recall you to Yasmault but, due to the new situation here on Earth he decided to let you stay. For Now."

"That's nice of him." Katheryn mumbled as she watched Dex-Starr float into the air towards the window. After letting the cat out Katheryn returned to her bed room, as she contemplated the strange lantern her radio crackled into life.

"Red Floof, Calculator here. Brainiac forces have been spotted not far from you. I'm sending the co-ordinates."

Smiling Katheryn picked up the red lantern and held her ring up to it, energy jumped from the lantern to her ring with an almost rhythmic beat and words seemed to flow from the ring to her mouth.

"With blood and rage of crimson red,

Ripped from corpse so freshly dead,

Together with our hellish hate,

We'll burn you all—that is your fate."

The End.


End file.
